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As per usual, anything said during the show is subject to change by CIG and may not always be accurate at the time of posting. Also any mistakes you see that I may have missed, please let me know so I can correct them. Enjoy the show!

Full Transcript

Sandi Gardiner (SG): Hello and welcome to another episode of Around the Verse. I’m Sandi Gardiner.

Chris Roberts (CR): And I’m Chris Roberts.

SG: The crew that organised a massive FPS team battle on Yela highlighted in our last episode was at it again last weekend.

CR: Yeah, so Team Mitachi took on Team The Few in a 25 vs. 25 brawl at Kareah Station. This time around each team had one player with a level 4 crime stat and the first team to clear the rating by hacking the Kareah computers took the match.

[video]

SG: And it isn’t just FPS battles being organised in the Persistent Universe. A group of players in our German community recently held a timed mining competition.

CR: Yeah, each participant raced to collect as many minerals as they could within a two hour. Every prospector was allowed a wingman by their side to protect the ship from attacks. And the winning team ended up bringing in 13,926 UEC. And that was even after deducting repair, refuel and claim costs. So congrats to them and “pretty impressive”.

SG: Yes, congrats to them. It’s always fun to see the community engaging with new mechanics like that.

Now let’s look to the future and what the devs have been working for upcoming releases.

CR: So the Mission team continues to work on modular mission design and has refocused efforts on the Scramble Race - or “Death Race” - missions that we saw early tests of in previous updates.

[video]

Luke Pressley (LP): The Scramble Race is a weapons free race. There’s a space version and a ground version. This week we’ve been focusing mainly on the ground version. We’ve took it to a stage - just for designers - where we thought … we were happy with getting a lot of other QA and designers involved because it’s up to a 16 player race. The tests were really, really positive actually. Just a little bit of feedback like the wheeled vehicles need to have - ‘cause they go slower and they have to avoid more rocks - we should bring in the checkpoints more. Whereas for GravLev vehicles we can spread them out wider. So we’re there now and we have been getting the little bits of feedback from them that help us improve it and get to the point release. And from there we’ll be moving on to the space race.

SG: For all you fans of Star Marine and Arena Commander, the UI team has completed a wireframe pass on getting ship and item rentals integrated into both multiplayer game modes.

CR: Derelicts are not an uncommon sight around the PU and they have been going through the process of having setups updated into clean and efficient object container files read for future expansions. We are also updating these spaces with subtle fog and light probes to better sell the shape and form of the interiors.

SG: And while Environment teams working on perfecting those wrecks, the Ship team continues to develop ships for Alpha 3.3 and beyond. Let’s go to Jared for an update.

Ship Shape

Jared Huckaby (JH): Thanks guys! It’s been a big couple of weeks for ships, so let’s go ahead and recap.

On last Friday’s Ship Shape, we detailed one potential layout being developed in white box phase for the 890 JUMP as well as announced that the Origin 300 series has finally begun the process of being reconcepted ahead of its own rework. Now today, I’m pleased to show some of the earliest images of this reconcepting going on right now. As you can see, much like the Mustang series rework that’s currently in progress, our artists are looking to retain the iconic silhouettte while updating it with accents seen in the 100 and 600 series, also from Origin, as well as address longstanding issues like, “How do we load cargo into and out of the thing?”

Now, we are going to be checking in with both of these ships as their development continues throughout the remainder of this year.

Additionally, we also debuted the new Apollo medical ship from RSI. Now, if you missed it you can check out either the standalone Ship Shape or the more robust hour-long RTV discussion that’s not only about the ship but also about the future of medical gameplay for all in the Star Citizen universe. Both of those videos are available now, up on YouTube.

That’s it for me this week, back to you Chris and Sandi.

Back to Studio

SG: Thanks Jared. If you haven’t given it a go yet head to the Apollo page and try out the Astro Medics mini game. Fun fact it’s based on one of first games that Chris designed.

CR: That’s true. A long time ago when I was like twelve or something. Go check it out.

The Audio team has been working with the Props team adding sound effects to the physicalised props as seen and heard here.

Graham Phillipson (GP): Physicalised props are props that have a physical component to them that allows them to move, roll, slide, or - bit of gravity - bounce, and interact with other geometry in the world. Recently in the Audio team we’ve been using this functionality to give a much more rounded audio experience to the props that are in the game.

Previously we used a materials system to express the audio of objects colliding with each other. This would mean that something that was made out of thick metal would sound exactly like something else that was made out of thick metal. If you imagine a sheet of metal it sounds very different if it’s rolled into a tube. What we need to do is express the sound of the object not the sound of material. This new system gives us the ability to have very specific sounds applied to the objects in the game.

In addition we have code that can detects whether an object is rolling or sliding, and in the specific case of rolling the code that we have is quite nice because it doesn’t require and object to be spherical or tubular to be rolling. If an object has just one surface that is curved the code can detect that that object is be rolled upon.

Also if an object is bouncing along but rolling in between bounces we can pick that up as well.

SG: The logistics of PU delivery lockers are being hashed out by the Mission and Narrative teams and we’re now getting first glimpses of of concept art.

CR: Yeah, the lockers will be an alternate way for players to pick up and drop off goods related to certain missions in the Persistent Universe, and save you from having to battle the Admin to take your package.

SG: Past updates have given us an early look at Lorville’s mass transit system. These concept renderings help our designers hone in on the right look and feel from some of the city’s dingier platforms.

CR: The Hurston security stations are in whitebox stage. Here’s Friedrich to tell us a little more about this stage of the process.

Friedrich Bode (FB): Security checkpoints are going to become very important as soon as we move away from the armistice zones we currently have in the games and when we switch to a more nuanced system. And we’re currently working on the high security version which is going to be needed for Lorville but we can easily adapt it to other locations as well.

It’s going to work very similar to how security checkpoints in present day airports work. They will come in different sizes and security levels depending on the local laws.

There’s a list of items that are illegal in the area beyond the checkpoint and players pass through a scanner and if they’re not carrying anything illegal they can just go through. If they are carrying an illegal item then they will be stopped and they will be asked to give up the item or store it. They can choose to comply or they can choose to resist and then they will have to face the consequences.

Skilled and clever players might be able to find ways how to circumvent security altogether in certain locations.

SG: Finally we take another look at the continuing development of the utilitarian Lorville habs.

CR: Yeah, the environments now have gone into whitebox as well and we can see the key concept art being rendered as an actual 3D space.

SG: The whiteboxing process is all about establishing the correct forms and proportions of these cramped living spaces. Making them usable for AI and workable for modularity.

CR: Yeah and once we get those toilets working things are going to get interesting for the particle effects team.

SG: Thank you to our subscribers for sponsoring the show and to all the backers for supporting Star Citizen’s development. Until next time, we will see you …

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